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Ch’oe Nam-sŏn’s Korean Studies and Practical Limitations in the 1920s

TAE HUN Lee 1

1연세대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Ch’oe Nam-sŏn proposed the conduction of Korean Studies in 1922 because he thought that eliciting the nation’s civilizational capability would be essential for the resurrection of nation. His thoughts resulted from his continued problématique since the late 19th century. He believed that the autonomous development of civilization would not be attained by only following the Western civilization. Ch’oe Nam-sŏn largely focused on three research topics in the 1920s. The first theme was to explain the national ordeals as historical momentum. The second was to reestablish Tan’gun and Old Chosŏn as the center of the ancient civilization in East Asia. The third was to prove that the cultural heritage of Old Chosŏn passed down to the life and religious faith of the nation. Yet most of all, he made every effort to demonstrate that Old Chosŏn was the center of the ancient civilization of East Asia, which was called the Pulham Culture Area. Ch’oe Nam-sŏn’s research received positive responses among the general public. This was because he refuted Japanese scholars’ assertion that Tan’gun was fabricated, and he reestablished the Korean national origin as the beginnings of East Asian civilization. Ch’oe Nam-sŏn also gained the support of nationalist intellectuals as well as the mass people. His claim for national solidarity provided them with intellectual resources for ways to cope with socialists’ ideological offensive. However, his study had limitations. The research method was lacking in objectivity and the ideological message was not much different from the theory of civilization and enlightenment. Even the supportive nationalist intellectuals did not consider his work as scientific research and criticized it as an ideological study like that of socialists. Ch’oe Nam-sŏn’s ideas resonated with the general public, but his role inside the camp of nationalist movement almost disappeared. Ch’oe Nam-sŏn thought that the Chosŏn society and nationalist movement had serious problems, when he failed to draw positive responses from them despite all his passionate research activities. He believed they did not desperately consider methods for practice though they expected the resurrection of nation. He also criticized that socialists’ ideological dependency frustrated all efforts to love and glorify the nation. Ch’oe Nam-sŏn did not think the current situation of Chosŏn would be improved for some time. He felt deeply discouraged by the frustration of his endeavor to establish Tan’gun and Old Chosŏn as an ideological pointer. Giving up on the Chosŏn society and nationalist movement, he participated in the Committee for Compiling Korean History (Chosŏnsa P’yŏnsuhoe) in 1928 and began to work following his thoughts. Ch’oe Nam-sŏn wanted to prove the Chosŏn nation’s civilizational status and propose a principle of national independence, but as his research activities were frustrated, he began to deny the Chosŏn nation’s autonomous ability and was absorbed into the theory of East Asian Culture centering on Japan.

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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